Centrelink Community Engagement Officers

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The White Paper

Over the course of 2009, both the Australian and state/territory Governments have commenced the roll out of a number of key measures earmarked in the White Paper The Road Home. Specialist Homelessness Services are now funded through the National Affordable Housing Agreement (NAHA) while new initiatives to address homelessness are funded via  the Homelessness National Partnership (Homelessness NP).

In response to what is commonly called the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) the Australian Government allocated some $42 billion in funding for the National Partnership Agreement on the Nation Building and Jobs Plan (Stimulus Package). Initially, this included a significant capital investment of some $6.4 billion for new social housing, though this was recently reduced by $750 million. Nonetheless, it represents the biggest investment in social housing in decades and will finance the construction of a projected 19 200 additional social housing dwellings over 5 years. The new funding environment will mean substantial changes to the homelessness support system. States and territories have substantial responsibilities under these instruments and have been afforded much greater flexibility over how they will allocate funding for homelessness programs and services.

Homelessness Australia is committed to monitoring the implementation of initiatives, programs and services under the White Paper and we have recently undertaken to employ 4 Policy Officers who will provide us with invaluable feedback about what is happening on the ground in their states and territories. They are:

Gerhard Rousseau (Western Australia) E-mail: policy@communityhousing.com.au

Cecile Dutreix (South Australia) E-mail: cecile.dutreix@unisa.edu.au

Anita Van Riet (Tasmania) E-mail: Anita.VanRiet@utas.edu.au

Kathy Bannister (Northern Territory) E-mail: project@ntshelter.org.au

For more information about the roll out of the White Paper, please visit:

FaHCSIA website

or email Travis Gilbert, Homelessness Australia: policy@homelessnessaustralia.org.au

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Homelessness Australia has produced:

An Issues Paper with sumaries of key polices and 11 important issues of the White Paper. 

An Action Paper promoting 19 actions that proposes to take over the period of development and implementation of the White Paper’s policy actions.